The 10th District's representative, under federal indictment for allegedly accepting a $7,000 bribe, had another bad day Wednesday. An Illinois House panel found grounds to bring a charge that could lead to disciplinary action, including expulsion from the chamber.

The panel named Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, and Rep. Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, to present a case to the House Select Committee on Discipline, which will make a recommendation to the full House.

None of this comes as a surprise. On the day that his attorney compared Smith's plight to that of Christ et al., the lawmaker had just declined to testify before the panel, which was appointed to investigate possible official misconduct after his March 13 arrest.

Absent Smith's testimony, the panel based its finding largely on the potently straightforward evidence filed by the U.S. attorney to support a federal bribery charge. The House panel needed only to find "reasonable grounds" to move forward, unlike the "probable cause" standard federal prosecutors had to meet to bring a criminal charge.

The feds said Smith pocketed the bribe in exchange for writing a letter of support for a day care center he believed was seeking a state grant. The day care center was fictitious, and the middleman was a government informant who wore a wire while counting out the bills, according to prosecutors. Smith insists he is innocent.

On Wednesday, Henderson characterized that evidence as "almost nothing" and said, again, that Smith would not resign his House seat.

Smith's arrest, a week before the primary election, spun into an only-in-Illinois spectacle: The 10th District's Democratic leadership held a rally outside the Thompson Center to urge residents to vote for him anyway. Their plan was to nudge him off the ballot after he'd won the nomination and replace him with a Democrat of their choosing.

Smith collected 77 percent of the vote but refused to step down, forcing the local leaders to conjure up a new 10th District Unity Party so they can run a candidate against him in November.

"The people in my district elected me even after the government charged me with wrongdoing," Smith said last month. "And that's because they believed in me."

That's pure fantasy. The 10th District's voters didn't put Smith in office in the first place — he was appointed to a vacant seat in March 2011 — and his legislative record hasn't given them a lot to believe in. He's listed as the main sponsor on seven measures, four of which are stuck in the Rules Committee. Two bills that made it through both houses appear to be housekeeping measures. And let's not overlook that resolution congratulating the Selfreliance Ukrainian American Federal Credit Union on its 60 years of service.

Smith has his own selfish reasons for hanging onto his House seat for dear life. It preserves some leverage for a potential plea bargain. It sends a message to a jury. And it keeps the paychecks coming, the better to pay those legal bills.

So we get why he's hanging around, and we're not going to waste more of our breath urging him to go. We just wish he'd stop pretending he's doing it for the people of the 10th District.